Trump's Gaza Plan - Crazy or Brilliant? Part II

I think it's safe to say that an article online on CNN by Stephen Collinson, is representative of Democratic and leftwing thinking about Trump's plan for Gaza.  Collinson:  "To see an American president endorse what would be the forcible expulsion of Palestinians from their home, in an exodus that would subvert decades of US policy, international law and basic humanity, was breathtaking."  Well, decades of US policy has clearly not resulted in peace between Israel and the Palestinians.  So, who gives a damn about failed policy.  International law?  Would not be an issue if UNRWA  had not insisted on working with the worst extremist/terrorist elements in Gaza, by forcing people to stay in what they have called "an outdoor prison," instead of resettling them as millions of other refugees did after WWII.  

Basic humanity?  If the Dems and the Left cared about basic humanity, they might ask themselves this:  "do I want to live in area where Hamas uses me and my family as human shields, where my children and I may die from the constant wars, or would I rather live in peace somewhere else?"  Because Israel is not going anywhere.  And for UNRWA and Hamas to teach the children of Gaza that the goal in life is to kill all the Jews, is pure evil.  You see, people like Collinson have no plan, other than another 100 years of war and dying.  

Collinson:  "The president's obliviousness to the aspirations of Palestinians and his assumption that they'd prefer a modern housing development elsewhere showed a stunning naivety about the causes of the conflict."  If I had to guess, it would be to say that Collinson believes the conflict is over land.  It is only in this sense - the Palestinians want all the land, including Israel.  And they don't care how they get there, even if it takes another 100 years of killing Jews, and tens of thousands of their own people dying.  The leaders of Hamas openly admit that the more dead Palestinians there are, the more martyrs there are.  Not to mention the propaganda value of dead Palestinians, in whipping up hatred of Israel and the Jewish people worldwide, as the useful idiots of the Left fall for it every time. 

But even the Left has to once in a while admit reality.  In explaining why Jordan and Egypt do not want to take in the Palestinians, Collinson said this:  "Jordan...fears the Hashemite Kingdom would be fatally destabilized by a new influx (of Palestinians)."  And Egypt?  "Egypt's military fears a massive influx of Palestinians that would include Hamas sympathizers of the Sunni Islamist Muslim Brotherhood."  

A reminder.  From 1948 until the 6 Day War in 1967, Egypt controlled Gaza and Jordan controlled the West Bank (Judea and Samaria).  Since then, Egypt has renounced ownership of Gaza, just as Jordan has renounced ownership of the West Bank.  They don't want the Palestinians.  So, all this talk about the "poor Palestinians," is nothing other than lip service.  If your neighbors were being bombed and killed, but you could take them in and provide safe and better living conditions, would you do it?  Well, the Egyptians and the Jordanians won't.  They don't give a damn about their fellow Arabs.  They just pretend that they do. 

Again, we see a glimmer of reality from Collinson, who calls Trump "an outsider president who lives to shake things up and who is beloved by his voters for rejecting the orthodoxy of elites and the conventional approaches that have failed."  So, if the past has failed - and it clearly has - why do so many Democrats and the Left want to keep repeating it?  

As Elliot Kaufman wrote in that 2/6/25 Op-Ed in the WSJ:  "Even as Arab states claimed Israel was slaughtering Palestinians indiscriminately, they insisted Gaza's borders stay shut.  When Palestinians tried to flee the war, as is their human right, Egypt forcibly closed the border - with the support of the international community."  Including the Biden Administration.

Rather than give credence to Trump's bold proposal, the Dems and the Left prefer to stick with failed policies.  They refuse to acknowledge the reality of staying the course.  Kaufman summed it up best:  "The humane solution, by liberal lights, is to sacrifice another generation of Palestinians to permanent refugee status and a forever war on Israel.  That's what life in Gaza holds for them."

How about we get behind President Trump on this?  Peace rather than war.  Economic prosperity rather than squalor.  

Trump's Gaza Plan - Crazy or Brilliant? Part I

Looking back on the last 100 years or so, three events stand out as having had a significant impact on the Middle East, and specifically the Arab-Israeli conflict.  First, in 1917, we had what came to be known as the "Balfour Declaration."  Then British Foreign Secretary, Arthur James Balfour, wrote to Lord Rothchild the following:  "His Majesty's Government view with favor the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people..."  Prior to WWI, the Ottoman Empire controlled much of the Middle East for 400 years.  Following the Allies' victory, Britain controlled the area of what later became Jordan, Israel and the West Bank.  British authority came from the League of Nations in what was called the "British Mandate," also referred to as "Mandatory Palestine."  

To be clear, there was never a country called Palestine on that land.  There was a Kingdom of Israel 2000 years ago, and the country of Israel since 1948.  But the geographic area was called "Palestine," and was home to Jews and Arabs.  Yes, I've seen online articles referring to Palestine as if it was a country run by the Arabs.  Simply not true.  The second significant event  was the 1947 UN General Assembly voting to partition the land of the British Mandate into a Jewish state and an Arab state.  The Arabs immediately rejected the idea, and made war on the new country of Israel.  But, the Arabs had been killing Jews since the 1920's.  And while the Jews sided with the US and the Allies in WWII, the Arabs sided with Hitler.  

Now we come to the third significant event - Trump's outline for the future of Gaza.  Steve Witkoff has been Trump's emissary to the Middle East, and was instrumental in bringing about the current cease-fire and release of the hostages.  Based on his speaking with people there, and his own observations, Witkoff said this:  "There's 30,000 unexploded munitions.  Buildings that could tip over at any moment.  There's no utilities there whatsoever.  No working water, electric, gas.  Nothing.  G-d knows what kind of disease might be festering there."

So, Trump has a different idea.  Move the people out of Gaza, at least temporarily.  Then, "level the site and get rid of the destroyed buildings.  Level it out.  Create an economic development that will supply unlimited numbers of jobs and housing for the people of the area...do something different.  If you go back, it's going to end up the same way it has for 100 years."  Exactly!  It's been war after war after war, terrorist attack after terrorist attack after terrorist attack.  Until October 7, 2023, when much of the Jewish world woke and acknowledged the failure of the two-state solution.  

Trump has consistently shown that he thinks "outside the box," especially when it comes to the Middle East.  It wasn't just moving the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, Israel's capital city.  It wasn't just recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the strategic Golan Heights.  During his first term, Trump acknowledged the reality that the Palestinians would never make peace with Israel.  So, he said, let's make peace deals between Israel and the other Arab countries.  Which is how the unthinkable happened with the Abraham Accords.  No one thought that was possible.  But Donald Trump did.  

Here is how The Jewish Press described the situation since Israel's rebirth in 1948:  "Over the next 78 years, the Western nations tolerated the Arabs' bloodlust and hatred, blaming most of it on the Jews for their insolent survival of Arab hostility, until yesterday, when an unusually practical American president put a stop to the charade."  Trump said the Gaza strip "has been a symbol of death and destruction for so many decades and so bad for the people anywhere near it."  Said the Wall Street Journal of Trump's idea:  "however preposterous, does have the virtue of forcing the world to confront its hypocrisy over the fate of the Palestinian people."

The Journal:  "The best the world can come up with is to mouth the 'two-state' platitude and let Gaza remain a hell-hole where Hamas will revive its reign of terror, and Palestinians who want something different will be tossed off buildings."  In a 2/6/25 Op-Ed in the Journal, Elliot Kaufman wrote that UNRWA (the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine refugees) has had the singular goal of keeping the Arabs in Gaza as permanent "refugees."  Refugees from where?  From Israel, because they claim Israel has no right to exist, and the Jewish people have no right to live there.  Think about that.  Every other actual refugee group following WWII, moved on.  

They moved to other countries around the world.  Even 700,000 to 800,000 Jews living in the Arab world were forced to leave their homes where their families had lived for hundreds of years.  But Kaufman explains that UNRWA's "job is to keep them (the Arabs of Gaza) in forever refugee status down into the third, fourth and soon fifth generation.  This way, they stay poor and crowded in Gaza's permanent refugee camps, whipped up for a final return to overwhelm the Jews."  

So, is Trump's idea crazy or brilliant.  If by "crazy" people mean difficult to achieve, I agree.  But the idea is brilliant because Trump is looking for a better life for all the people in the area, and he has a plan to get there.  Do I think Trump will ask US taxpayers to pay for the cleanup and rebuilding?  No.  I think pressure will be put on the wealthy Arab countries (think Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar) to foot the bill.  And maybe some pressure on the Europeans.  

When Robert F. Kennedy was running for president in 1968, he often repeated a quote originally attributable to George Bernard Shaw:  "some people see things as they are and say 'why?'  I dream things that never were and say 'why not'?"  But we know Trump will never get credit from the Democrats and the Left.  So, let's look at a typical Democrat reaction - in Part II.